Making The Switch From Twitter to Jaiku

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These famous words were never the last from Tweety Bird, but for a growing number of Twitter users they will be. The last thing they will see before giving up on Twitter will be the Twitter server cat, the default screen when the service is completely down.

It’s not just down time on Twitter lately that has made the service sit somewhere between frustrating and useless. Even when Twitter is up, updates/ refreshes fail, pages don’t load and third party tools can’t connect. There has been a lot of downtime.

Twitter is a service you want to love. Like Blogger, Evan William’s earlier start up, it has not only become a market leader, it has been vital in creating a new online service market focused on IM.

We covered competing services in September 06, but one service is gaining acceptance fast as the masses on Twitter start looking elsewhere. The service is Jaiku.

It doesn’t have the people presence that Twitter has (yet) but at least you can communicate with people on Jaiku reliably. High profile converts such as Leo Laporte have led the way for a growing number of Twitter users looking to make a change.

A new platform needs new tools. Here are a few to get started with in an attempt to recreate a (positive) Twitter experience on Jaiku.
Windows

NitWit: versions available for Linux/ Mac/ Windows and supports Jaiku and Twitter

Steve Clifford has a more extensive guide which includes mobile apps and support for WordPress. The only thing I was unable to find is a Twitbin style Firefox add-on for in-browser use but it’s sure to be developed by someone shortly. If you have any favorite Jaiku apps you’d care to share, let us know in the comments.